Much of budget introduced before midnight, but not education bill

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top state lawmakers appeared to come to an agreement on much of the state budget late Friday, but a bill laying out more than $20 billion in education spending wasn't introduced before a key midnight deadline.

Both the Senate and Assembly printed eight bills just before 11:59 p.m. Friday that would implement most of the state budget. Since they made it in before midnight, it means they will be eligible for a vote Monday -- the deadline for having a spending plan in place.

Legislation for school spending, however, still hadn't been introduced as of 1:30 a.m. Saturday, bringing into question whether Cuomo would be willing to waive a mandatory three-day aging period in order to salvage what could be the state's fourth consecutive on-time budget.

Here's some of what was included in the budget bills that WERE introduced late Friday:

Much of Cuomo's plan to offer a property-tax rebate remained in tact. Residential property taxpayers will receive a rebate equal to their annual tax increase if their local governments stay within the property tax cap in the coming fiscal year and, in year two, put together a plan that would cut costs through shared services by 1 percent annually. But local governments and school districts will now get credit for ""past efficiencies, shared services and reforms," unlike Cuomo's original proposal

The state's anti-bribery laws would be bolstered. A new crime -- corrupting the government -- would be created, and would apply to any public officials or co-conspirators who defraud the state. Cuomo had been pushing for the new crime after a rash of lawmaker indictments last year.

Most lawmakers returned home to their districts Thursday and are expected to return to the Capitol late Sunday.

If an agreement on school aid and education issues is reached before the Monday budget deadline, it remains unclear whether Cuomo would be willing to issue a "message of necessity" to waive the bill's aging period.

Cuomo has been criticized for issuing messages of necessity in the past -- most notably with the SAFE Act, a set of tough gun-control laws passed last year -- though he has used the tactic fewer times than his immediate predecessor. But a budget ahead of the deadline would give the state an on-time budget for each of his four years in office.